How do we facilitate parental involvement in study support?
There will be a need for positive, proactive recruitment: many parents will feel they do not have the skills. But there is plenty of evidence for (a) the benefits of involvement, and (b) the contribution which parents can make, and the skills they have – often without realising. It will be easier to recruit parents in a school where parental involvement is the norm, and often study support is the easiest place for this to start – it seems more relaxed, less threatening. When pupils first join the school, an audit of parental interests and skills can assist in recruiting new parents to help or run study support activities. An ongoing and regularly updated audit can enable the school to continue to benefit from parental participation in study support. It is important that all staff are involved in the audit as information is often gathered by chance and in informal situations. Parents can then be approached individually on the basis of what the school already knows about them (“We’re sta
